PROJECTS > Institutional > Cedar Lane Mosque

Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu province, located in northwest China. Known as the regional transportation hub and the mighty Yellow River, the city has been at the epicentre of the Silk Road for centuries. It also boasts a sizeable Muslim population, evidenced by the number of mosques available in the city proper.

One of the existing mosques is the Cedar Lane Mosque, located in Xiaoxihu, Qilihe District, Lanzhou. A redevelopment and reconstruction project of the mosque has been initiated to upgrade the ageing mosque building. The narrow mosque site is bounded by a congested neighbourhood with high-rise buildings. Though, the mosque is strategically located in the city downtown area and connected easily to the Xijin East Road to the north of the site.

In tandem with the increasing number of worshippers, the mosque had to be redeveloped for a bigger mosque capacity, which is a new four-storey building with a service area. Similarly, the existing limited number of car parks had to be upgraded with the construction of a three-story parking podium. The narrow site road also had to be re-aligned to allow for fire-engine access for firefighting purposes.

Inspired by the modern mosque architecture found in Malaysia, the mosque design features the quintessential Arabian mosque typology with contemporary elements. A big central hemispherical dome sits atop on a drum structure, fringed by smaller domes on the flat roof.  A small dome surmounts a slender detached minaret located on the right side of the mosque.